BC Stuns Georgetown in PKs

Boston College Men’s Soccer (11-7-2) continued its impressive run on Sunday, upsetting three seed Georgetown (16-2-3) on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw to advance to the Quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship. BC will now head to six seed Syracuse to face the Orange in the Elite Eight on Saturday.

The majority of the Eagles young line-up was made up of freshmen and sophomores, with goalkeeper Alex Kapp and defender Atobra Ampadu the only seniors. The team beat the University of South Florida and University of Vermont in the previous two rounds of the tournament.

The Eagles got off to a fantastic start and grabbed the lead in the 19th minute through freshman Trevor Davock and held the lead going into halftime. The Hoyas, who entered the game on a 17 match unbeaten run, would equalize through senior Keegan Rosenberry in the 60th minute, but neither side could find the back of the net from there through another 30 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of over time, sending the game to penalties.

BC would prove perfect in the shootout, scoring on all five, while Rosenberry missed Georgetown’s third effort, giving the visiting Eagles a 5-4 shootout victory.

The favored Hoyas had the better of the possession, but struggled defensively against BC’s creative midfield on the counterattack. Swedish freshman striker Simon Enstrom helped start the play leading to the Eagles opener by playing a ball out wide to Ghanaian junior midfielder Isaac Normesinu. Normesinu then played in a low cross where Davock, a Medway native, back-heeled it in to give the visitors the lead.

Both sides would have further chances in the half and went into the break with seven shots a piece.

The Hoyas would find their equalizer in the 60th minute off a Christopher Lema corner kick with Rosenberry volleying it in at the back post to knot the score at 1-1.

Despite outshooting the home side seven to four in the second frame, the Eagles were unable to get their name back on the score sheet, sending the game to overtime. The Hoyas would then outshot BC four to one in the extra periods, but the game remained even on the scoreboard and went to penalties.

The Eagles and Hoyas traded penalties through the first two rounds with goalkeeper Alex Kapp and goal scorer Davock scoring the first two for BC. Rosenberry would then shoot high for the Hoyas and junior Zeiko Lewis would finish well to put the Eagles ahead. From there both Raphael Salama and Len Zeugner would score for the Eagles to give the side a 5-4 win.

BC next travels to Syracuse and will face the Orange at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The Eagles beat ACC rivals Syracuse 2-1 in their regular season finale in Newton on October 30.

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About Sean Donahue

Sean Donahue serves as an editor and staff writer at New England Soccer Today. He has been covering the New England Revolution since 2002 for various publications. He has covered four MLS Cups, in addition to covering various international matches, including World Cup Qualifying and the CONCACAF Gold Cup. He has done freelance work for the Associated Press and ESPN Boston.
Sean co-hosts New American Game, a soccer talk radio show from 10am to noon on WMEX AM1510. He previously hosted Revolution Recap, a weekly radio program covering the New England Revolution and U.S. Men's National Team from 2005-2008. He is a member of the North American Soccer Reporters. Sean can be reached at nesoccertoday@gmail.com or on Twitter @SeanLDonahue